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The NMC is not fit for purpose when it does not understand the profession it is regulating and does not work with the people it is supposed to be protecting.

This was the message Ruth gave at the demonstration outside the NMC headquarters on the 5th May 2017. Led by Caroline Flint on International Day of the Midwife, mothers and midwves partners and children from all over the country came to protest at the actions and attitude of the NMC. A small delgation of mothers and midwves also met with NMC’s CEO, Jackie Smith and two members of her team.

It was Ruth’s, first open air speech with a megaphone so here is what she would have said if she had not been up a ladder shouting over the traffic!

Our vision is for families in Britain to be happy, healthy, strong and stable. We need a midwifery profession to be there to nurture, enable and empower mothers and their families to be just that.

In the words of Margaret Jowitt former editor of Midwifery Matters :

“Women need a strong midwifery profession with autonomous midwives backed up by a governance system NOT paid for, or supplied by, the Trust for which they work. Midwives keep birth safe. Midwives treat women as individuals. Midwives respect women’s right to choose.”

And so we want a regulator that understands this. We want a regulator who nurtures, empowers and supports midwives so they can nurture, empower and support mothers.

Midwives keep birth safe and a midwifery regulator is there to keep midwives safe and midwives respected.

We therefore need a midwifery regulator that has an open and transparent culture, which is accountable both to the mothers and their families it serves and also the midwifery profession it regulates . Do we have this? NO! Do we want it? YES!

We need a regulator that is supportive rather than punitive, a regulator that does not run on fear but on mutual professional respect, a regulator who midwives can ring up for advice and guidance without fear of retribution. Do we have this? NO! Do we want it? YES!

We want a regulator that rather than increasing litigation by its activity reduces it! And we don’t want a regulator who just bans attendance at the births of family and friends to try and get itself out of a tight spot. We want a regulator that acts reflectively and with sensitivity for best practice and compassion. Do we have this? NO! Do we want it? YES!

And we want a regulator that knows what a midwife is for goodness’ sake! We want a regulator that knows the difference between employment and self employment in the profession! That understands and discourses with midwives from all branches of the profession – Do we have this ?NO! Do we want it? YES!

I am a mother. A mother of five children, and where I had good quality continuity of carer I remember the names of my midwives – they are etched on my heart. Thank you Ann Devanney, Thank you Madge Boyle. Thank you Michelle Irving. Independent Midwife Michelle Irving was my midwife for Child number 5 because the NHS care I was being offered was no longer safe and my complaint had been ignored and refuted. Independent Midwifery was a choice for safety and it cost 20% of our income and it took 2 years to pay it off – but we decided that a good, safe birth is priceless.

The NMC knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing. It speaks the language of legal regulation and public protection but does not speak to or listen to the mothers who know the real cost of their policies and the real value of a safe and compassionate midwife!

The NMC is not fit for purpose when it does not understand the profession it is regulating and does not work with the people it is supposed to be protecting.

NMC reform yourself, or we, the mothers and grandmothers of this nation, will TAKE YOU DOWN!

And we WILL take you down, Jackie Smith, if you do not start talking with us and listening to us. Julia Cumberlege talked to parents all over the country as part of her Maternity Review – the NMC should be doing this as part of their engagement and accountability programme. It is courtesy to the public you say you protect.

So my call to you here today as mothers and midwives of this generation is to set about making the regulator we need and deserve for the benefit of the midwives and mothers to come. It will take work and cunning and more work and political wheeling and dealing and a hell of a lot of campaigning but it can be done and we can do it. That all mothers are supported through the maternal pathway is our vision, that the centre of our practice is nurture and good evidence is a value, but OUR BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL is to have a fit for purpose regulatory body for midwives. And if you won’t do it, NMC, we shall do it ourselves. Because we, the public, want to be protected and to be protected we need a strong, autonomous, respected midwifery profession.

Follow me – Bornstroppy – on my blog. Join the #savethemidwife campaign on FB. Write to your MP AGAIN! And tell your family, friends and neighbours, your sisters, cousins, children, tell your colleagues at work, the people in the supermarket queue, the people you meet on the train tonight. This is about our babies, our bodies, our births! It is about our profession, our good practice, our future autonomy. We do not ask for it because it is a nice thing – we demand it because it is our human right to be respected and nurtured to birth safely how we choose. And a strong respected well supported compassionate midwifery profession is required to deliver this.

At a recent workshop on tactics and strategy for changing birth, we identified some super useful tools for change that I just had to share here!

1 Engage staff/people – learning together – message: ‘we are in this together’.

2. Going to / speaking to the person with the power.

3. Finding Champions for Change, these are individuals that others will respect and follow.

4.Believe in myself. Challenge the ‘impostor syndrome’ that we may have.

5. Being bold – having the cheek to ask for it. Doing it even though the outcome is unknown.

6. Dealing with rejection: don’t take it personally, try someone/somewhere else, be stubborn.

7. Make sure your rationale is clear. Make sure it means something to you and to the people you approach. E.G. What do you want? Why do you want it?

8. Finding people to join (you on) a statutory committee (lay members): Use Facebook and other social media, follow up contacts, remind them near the time, arrange to meet them to go in together. Mutual support works wonders!

9 JFDI – You have done the research, made your plans, worked out what resources you need. In the end you just have to Just F****** Do It!

I just want to add two quotes that I gathered from another international workshop. This first one is from young activists in Ireland:

“Take small steps both individually and collectively with unreasonable optimism to address the large and long term issues of poverty and exclusion which do not have to be inevitable.”

We can add in our own small and large issues there.

And from young activists in the Netherlands:

“There was a transformation in my thinking, not to be overwhelmed by all the worlds challenges and want to be able to solve them all, but to realise that focusing one’s energy into one specific area has the greatest impact.”